Bette Davis, cinema’s biggest mystery to anyone under 75, is talking to her little frou-frou dog.[1] And I mean really talking, like asking its opinion of her hat. She is a little sad as this is her anniversary. It has been 15 years since her husband died in the war; or maybe just went into hiding.
Davis is going out tonight to play Bridge with a dull couple [2]. Vanessa the dog will be going out with her “boyfriend” according to Davis. The boyfriend — well-groomed Doorman Eddie — rings the bell. As soon as Vanessa sees Eddie, she barks and runs to him. He is very anxious to get his $5 dog-walking fee in advance.
A few days later Eddie arrives unannounced on his day off. This time he is unshaven in a ratty jacket and asks for more money. His needs it for his girl who has been in a sanitarium for a year with lung problems (i.e. needs an abortion). She refuses his request for $50, instead giving him a lecture on budgeting.
The next night as she is ignominiously forced to walk her own dog, Vanessa leads her down a dark alley. Dark alley in the 1950s meaning well-lit and clean with a couple of tidy cans. She is attacked from behind by a man in a hat. Repeat, suspect is hatted.
Later in her apartment she tells the police she lost her wedding ring as well as $180. That’s a wad of money — $1,500 in 2016 dollars — so she must be either pretty well-off or was looking for Joe Buck [3]. She describes the attacker — tall, rough cheap jacket material. Vanessa didn’t bark at first, almost as if she knew the man. She goes down to the station to identify a suspect. She says it is not him.
The next day, Eddie is back at work, shaven and in uniform. Davis tells him she was robbed, but all she cares about is the ring. They have a conversation about whether the thief would return the ring for $500. Eddie says he doesn’t think that plan will work, and Davis dismisses him. This a tricky role to play as Eddie needs to appear only plausibly guilty.
Sgt Kirby shows up as Eddie is leaving. Davis tells him about Eddie asking for $50 the day before. She is a little upset that Eddie did not take her $500 offer. She says she can still feel his jacket as he choked her. Eddie protests that he did not take her ring. She IDs Eddie as the thief.
A year after she sends Eddie to the big house, Sgt Kirby stops by. He tells her Eddie never had her ring. It was found at the home of the suspect she let go. When Kirby reminds her that she sent an innocent man to jail, she protests, “Well if I made a mistake, it was an honest one. After all you are the detective. It’s up to you to check these things!”
She continues, “He had no alibi at the trial. A jury found him guilty.” Kirby reminds her that it was based on her identification. He says he will feel better when Eddie is released.
TV’s first money shot
She asks for the ring, but Kirby says they will need it as evidence until Eddie is free. She says she hopes it isn’t weeks and weeks. Kirby suggests that Eddie is probably thinking the same thing. Bravo.
Eddie gets his old job back. One day, Davis is taking Vanessa out when she sees him in the elevator — awkward! She tells him she spoke to the manager about him being rehired — so I guess he should be grateful. And that it wasn’t easy testifying against him — so I guess he should feel sorry for her. And that Vanessa has missed him — so I guess he should feel guilty about being out of town. Still attempting to ease her conscience, she gives Eddie the $500 she had offered a year earlier.
Davis: Oh by the way, how is your fiancee?
Eddie: She died while I was in prison.
That wipes the oblivious smile off her face. Some time later, after walking Vanessa, she is strangled in her apartment. This time it is Eddie. He spills the Benjamins over her body in what might have been the TV’s first money shot, and is back in jail quicker than Tobias Beecher.
Davis was hard to figure out in this one. Clearly she felt some guilt at sending Eddie to the slammer, but it certainly didn’t consume her. I think it was more a matter of him being merely a doorman. She didn’t look down on him, and was always nice to him, but she knew there was an understood, unspoken distance between them. When he asked for money that unspoken pact was breached. That said, she didn’t purposely send him away. She was just able to conceive that a mere doorman might have done this.
Her decision was partially based on Vanessa not initially barking, but only when she was attacked — therefore, she believed the attacker to be someone she knew. This is laughably false as the dog gives a bark at Eddie every time she sees him — except the time he killed her. I think this is more of a production goof than any maliciousness on Davis’ part.
Davis is a little over the top as the crazy cat lady — OK, it’s a poodle, but that is soooo close. And James Congdon is a little stiff as Eddie. It could have been given a little more energy, but it was a decent episode.
Post-Post:
- [1] Seriously, what were people thinking back then? If Charlize Theron went back in time would the people’s heads explode at her beauty? Would they even recognize it?
- [2] Contract Bridge sounds dull. Contact Bridge, now you’ve got something. Play a thousand hands of Bridge and . . .
- [3] The prostitute, not the sports announcer.
- AHP Deathwatch: James Congdon, born in 1921 still hanging in there! He is the father of Amanda Congdon who I vaguely remember as hosting Rocketboom ten years ago on YouTube. It appears to no longer exist, and the website is dark.
- Title Analysis: Pretty murky. What’s with the colon (which sometimes appears as a hyphen)? It is almost as bad as the Star Trek reboot titles.
I recently saw this episode on Me-TV. I found it interesting that a character played by Bette Davis would be killed off on this show. Frank Albertson, who played the detective, played Sam (“Hee-Haw!”) Wainwright in “It’s a Wonderful Life”, played the detective here. He never looked the same as Sam when I saw him on tv in the late 50s/early 60s. He also once played Wally’s teacher on LEAVE IT TO BEAVER. He passed away on Feb. 29, 1964, part of a Leap-Day passing club that later added Davy Jones of THE MONKEES.
If IMDB is correct, James Congdon is still with us, but he was born in 1929, not 1921. If he’d been born in 1921, he would’ve been 37 when this episode was filmed, and he looks more like 29 (which he was at the time) or even 25 here. I’d never heard of him before I saw his name in the closing credits.
Frank Albertson also played the rich, boorish Arizonan whose $40,000 is stolen by Janet Leigh’s sticky-fingered character in “Psycho.” When he starts waving his wad of loot around in his realtor’s office, flirting with Leigh to the point where’s he’s almost licking her ear, Leigh’s officemate (played by Hitchcock’s daughter Pat) is goggle-eyed at the sight of the cash. “I declare!” she gasps. And Frank Albertson winks and says, “I don’t. That’s how I get to keep it.”
Thanks for pointing that out. I completely missed it.
I found this episode to be more about the underlying sexual tension (and the resentment, as a consequence, and then later, the violence, caused, as a result) between the old woman, Miss Fox, an obviously unmarried “old spinster” who is secretly in love with the young and dashing Eddie, who is must uninterested in this old broad, and her silly banter. He is indifferent to the fact that she “wants” him: He is quite consumed by the constant predilection for an acquisition of easy and large amounts of money. About the money he asked from her, you claim, in your synopsis above that “His [sic] needs it for his girl who has been in a sanitarium for a year with lung problems (i.e. needs an abortion). ” I found that to be implausible. Were she merely in need of an abortion, she would not have been in a sanitarium for a year, and why did she die while he was incarcerated for a year? For whatever reasons he needed the money, her mood was significantly changed, and her affection for Eddie took a dive upon the mere mention of his “girl”. Crestfallen, she refused to help him–now she just hated him for even having any interest in any other female, and for spite, she denied him the loan. He obviously loved whoever it was he lost, and because of her spiteful refusal to assist him, he vengefully killed her and scattered the large one-hundred dollar bills all over her dead body, for he had no more reason in life to live.
Also, I don’t think that production goofed on the last scene (when Vanessa didn’t bark as Eddie attacked and killed Ms. Fox). The late, great Alfred Hitchcock was extremely deliberate about everything he did as far as his movies and shows were concerned. Perhaps Vanessa liked Eddie a bit more than she liked Ms. Fox. . .
Just a couple of thoughts on points you raised in your comments. Miss Fox was actually Ms Fox, a widow and not a spinster. The scene opens on her anniversary and she mentions it has been 15 years since her husband was killed in the war (photo of him in uniform on stereo)
The abortion is plausible. It would have been illegal in 1955, so the excuse of a sanitarium and her death from complications either from the abortion, or from a birth are entirely believable.
First of all, I think Don was kidding about an abortion..Secondly, if Eddie was lying about really looking to pay for an abortion, he would have made up the part about her being in an asylum for a year. Also, if he hadn’t been able to pay for anything because of being in jail, not getting an abortion would not have killed her.
First of all it was wonderful to see Bette Davis in this role.Davis was a great actress
I’m sure diserning people of all ages can realize this.What made her such a fantastic artist was her wiiingness to play complicated, unlikable characters.
in this part,she was a bitchy diva.But ,she was trying to do the right thing.The doorman’s answers about her stolen ring were very damning and not the sort of opinions an innocent man would make.She really cared about the sentimental value of the ring ,more than money.Yes there was a sort of sexual tension to,in a Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone sort of way.But ,her well intentioned actions did destroy a man’s life,so in the end there was a kind of Karma to her murder.
I love this movie and would like to purchase it. Please help???
You can find it for free on archive.org
“Davis is a little over the top as the crazy cat lady…”
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Yes, but it’s OTT in a Bette Davis kind of way, so all to the good! And after all, we disturbed her when she was right in the middle of writing a letter to Daddy.
Pretty Neat Episode! Bette Davis is always great!
Interesting ending very suspenseful.
Maybe he gets away since not seen by anyone